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Translate Scroll Painting Poem 16th century

Posted By: rat
Posted Date: Jul 05, 2011 (10:30 AM)

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thanks Juan. unfortunately I think it leads us into a dead end for the moment, alas, because the surname on the seal (character in the upper right) is Zhang, and the given name on the seal and as inscribed in ink seems to be Ruitu. There was a well-known late Ming official and calligrapher who also painted landscapes(died 1644) named Zhang Ruitu. However, just as in the case of the "Wen Zhengming" seal and inscription on this picture, these aren't correct as far as I can tell. First, the hand that inscribed the two characters "Ruitu" in ink is attractive but looks nothing like Zhang Ruitu's own handwriting (google Zhang Ruitu and look at the images for yourself). Second, on all of Zhang Ruitu's seals that I can find images of showing his full name like this (I am looking in the Shanghai Museum two volume set of artist's seals), he always has it carved as:

Rui Zhang

Tu yin (seal of)

whereas here, the seal is carved as:

Tu Zhang

yin Rui

third, the painting style has little if any connection to paintings by Zhang Ruitu (or Wen Zhengming). so again it seems we are back to an anonymous Qing painting of a Daoist them that has been embellished, most likely by a dealer, with inscriptions and seals that are supposed to make the picture either by or owned by/inscribed upon by Wen Zhengming and Zhang Ruitu, with a couple of seals of the Qianlong and Guangxu emperors. the painting seems to have some age to it and the figures are fairly well done, the landscape elements somewhat more cursory, but it's hard for me to say with any precision when it was painted. I would lean toward the 19th century, but it could be somewhat earlier (or later). sorry for the wild goose chase!

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Translate Scroll Painting Poem 16th century - Juan - Jul 06, 2011 (06:38 AM)